HOW TO USE MAP-O-MATIC (#6 in a Series)
Hometowns of Bible Writers (In Israel, Egypt, and Modern-Day Iraq, Iran, and Turkey)
This brief tutorial on Map-O-Matic demonstrates how, even though names of cities and countries sometimes change throughout the centuries and millenia*, we can still usually pinpoint where “ancient” locations are now.
* Examples: Byzantium became Constantinople, then Constantinople became Istanbul; Leningrad became Saint Petersburg (not the one in “Tom Sawyer” and “Huck Finn”); Leopoldville became Kinshasa; Ceylon became Sri Lanka; Burma became Myanmar; Abyssinia became Ethiopia; etc. etc.
Specifically, in this installment we will look at the “hometowns” of Bible writers (where they were born or where they “grew up” or where their “base of operations” was).
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, not all of the hometowns are known; in some cases, very little is known about the writers (they didn’t typically talk much about themselves). So here is what is known:
1) Moses and Joshua: Land of Goshen, Egypt
2) Samuel: Ramathaim-Zophim, Israel
3) Jeremiah: Anathoth, Israel;31.814120
4) Ezra, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah: Babylon (Iraq)
5) Nehemiah and Mordecai: Shushan, Persia (Iran)
6) David: Bethlehem, Israel
7) Solomon, Isaiah, Habakkuk, Mark: Jerusalem, Israel
8) Amos: Tekoa, Israel
9) Jonah: Gath-hepher, Israel
10) Micah: Moresheth, Israel
11) Nahum: Elkosh (Alkush), Israel
12) Matthew: Capernaum, Israel
13) Luke: Troas (Turkey)
14) John, Peter: Bethsaida, Israel
15) Paul: Tarsus (Turkey)
16) James and Jude (Jesus' brothers), Nazareth, Israel
So to “translate” that into what Map-O-Matic needs to create the pushpins, we look up those locations on the Bing Maps site, copy the coordinates, and construct our semicolo-separated file like so:
Red~Moses and Joshua: Land of Goshen, Egypt;30.187690;31.415770
Orange~Samuel: Ramathaim-Zophim, Israel;31.850000;35.231670
Green~Jeremiah: Anathoth, Israel;31.814120;35.264730
Blue~Ezra, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah: Babylon (Iraq);32.536390;44.420830
Teal~Nehemiah and Mordecai: Shushan, Persia (Iran);32.190556;48.257778
Purple~David: Bethelehem, Israel;31.703386;35.200043
Gray~Solomon, Isaiah, Habakkuk, Mark: Jerusalem, Israel;31.739981;34.953888
Chocolate~Amos: Tekoa, Israel;31.653020;35.229030
Red~Jonah: Gath-hepher, Israel;32.741670;35.325000
Orange~Micah: Moresheth, Israel;31.633400;34.916600
Green~Nahum: Elkosh (Alkush), Israel;33.033063;35.322937
Blue~Matthew: Capernaum, Israel;32.881110;35.575000
Purple~Luke: Troas (Turkey);39.800000;26.500000
Teal~John, Peter: Bethsaida, Israel;32.910000;35.631000
Chocolate~Paul: Tarsus (Turkey);36.908752;34.885374
Black~James and Jude (Jesus' brothers), Nazareth, Israel;32.696310;35.292007
The end result is this:
The only problem with this is that the locations span a wide enough area (several countries) that where the writers lived relatively close to each other (Israel), the pushpins are stacked up on top of each other and we can’t see what’s what.
So here are some “close-up” views of the area which was home to the majority of the Bible writers (Israel):
Still, there’s a little bit of congestion here, so let’s break it up and zero in a little closer on the two halves of Israel (north and south).
Here’s the southern half:
...and here’s the northern half:
That’s all for this installment. If you need more background information (how to use the Bing Maps site, how to copy the coordinates, etc.) see previous entries in this article series.